Note to subscribers: my deepest apologies for my notifier going crazy today! I have disabled it until the programmer can fix it. Again, I apologize for the email blitz!!!

This Movable Type upgrade has proven to be just a bit more complicated than I planned on. I have spent my entire allotment of time for creating new content on getting the new system to work! I'll try to get a new column written and posted on Wednesday.

In the meantime, the blog itself is MUCH easier to manage. I have implemented the widget manager to control all of the right-column content. That will make the whole site have a much more consistent look, and it will also ultimately reduce my nuts-and-bolts time here.

That means more time for Boomer memories!

So thanks for your patience, and please keep checking back in every day.

You could always tell which homes on the street had at least three kids living there: look for a fake-wooden-sided station wagon parked out front.

It's hard to pinpoint when the station wagon got its start. The Ford Model T resembled a station wagon in its most basic form. However, the tiny vehicle could only hold four comfortably.

In 1923, Star (a division of Durant Motors) began marketing a larger factory-built station wagon. The wagon body was made from wood.

As the decades progressed, station wagons became a common sight on American highways. The Pontiac Woodie was one of the most famous, with wooden side frames melded into a steel body. Many a California surf bum drove a restored (or not) Woodie in the 60's.

But the wood was a pain to maintain. Screws needed tightening, varnish needed periodic stripping and recoating, and the expanding and contracting lumber caused all sorts of sealing headaches.

Continue reading "The Long-Lost Fake-Wooden-Sided Station Wagon" »

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All of you I remember JFK subscribers, you have NOT been receiving emailed notifications of new articles. This is because my notifier program is not playing nice with the very latest version of Movable Type. I have the program developer on the case, and we are both confident that you will very soon again be getting emailed with new article summaries very soon. Thanks for being patient!

I certainly didn't hurt for toys when I was a kid. However, I didn't have EVERY toy.

Witness the Texaco Fire Truck. Another cool toy that sadly never made it into my toybox was the water rocket.

I saw hundreds of ads for water rockets in various comic book ads.

One day at junior high school, for a science demonstration, I finally got to witness a water rocket in action.

Pretty cool stuff! So cool, that nowadays there is a passionate online following of homegrown water rockets. Read on.

Continue reading "Water Rockets" »

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I have just upgraded I Remember JFK to Movable type version 4.23. If you see anything fubarred, please leave a comment and let me know!

I was a funny kid. I didn't eat much.

Though I was ravenous about candy, it wasn't unusual for me to barely touch my breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

It was a constant worry for my mother, who was assured by wise Dr. Wendleton to not worry, he'll eat when he's hungry.

One of the treats that would wake up my taste buds was a steaming bowl of Malt-O-Meal, complete with milk and, of course, sugar. I also enjoyed Cream of Wheat, and honestly couldn't tell the difference between the two competitors.

Malt-O-Meal got its start in 1919. That year, the Campbell Cereal Company was founded by by John Campbell, a miller in Owatonna, Minnesota. He invented a hot breakfast cereal which consisted of a combination of malted and farina wheat. He called it Malt-O-Meal. Campbell intended to compete with Cream of Wheat, which had gotten its start in the 1890's.

Continue reading "Malt-O-Meal and Cream of Wheat" »

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We're about to crack the century mark with the Blogging Boomers Carnival! Check out edition #98 over at This Marriage Thing.

It is with great trepidation that I present today's I Remember JFK memory to you.

You see, according to the legalese that I encountered in researching this particular piece of our pasts, I may be going away for a long, long time. Read on.

Woodsy Owl made his debut in 1970. That year was perhaps the pinnacle of the ecology awareness movement that had suddenly sprung up in response to the very dirty condition that the world, particularly the US, found itself in after all of that jet age progress. 1970 was the year that Iron Eyes Cody was featured in his unforgettable commercial decrying the effects of pollution.

Pollution was certainly on the minds of the nation's youthful movers and shakers, and Woodsy Owl was introduced to get involved. That would be you and me, Baby Boomers.

Continue reading "Woodsy Owl" »

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"Only you can prevent forest fires!" We must have heard those words a thousand times, as we sat in the floor after school watching Leave It to Beaver on our black-and-white TV's.

Forest fires were a non-issue for me. We had woods in Oklahoma's Green Country, but I can't ever recall a forest fire. Our summers typically were rainy, and the vegetation didn't dry up and turn to tinder the way it did in the western US, where the dry season ruled half the year.

Smokey Bear taught the Boomer generation about how dangerous forest fires were for everyone, especially cute cartoon animals, who would frequently be imperiled by a careless motorist who would toss his cigarette butt out the window.

Continue reading "Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires" »

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When we were kids, one of the greatest dangers that we faced was that of blasting caps. They were EVERYWHERE! Why, you couldn't sit in a back yard without some Eddie Haskell troublemaker type finding one in the grass and making plans to put it in your father's barbecue grill and blowing up your sister!

We must have seen hundreds of public service ads on TV warning us of the dangers of blasting caps. What was frustrating to us boys was that despite the fact that the filmed spots advised us that you couldn't walk across a vacant lot without stumbling across blasting caps of every conceivable type, we never found a one.

The message of the filmed spots was to make us afraid, VERY afraid. But unintentionally, they turned us into eager seekers of blasting caps. Imagine the sheer coolness of the lucky kid who actually located a genuine blasting cap. The leadership of the neighborhood gang would have been his!

But in my sleepy hometown of Miami, Oklahoma, the closest thing I ever found that resembled blasting caps were discarded electrical parts at my dad's truck garage. They were close enough to scare the girls at school, though, which was a pretty significant accomplishment in itself.

Continue reading "Don't Touch Blasting Caps!" »

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You know, blogging carnivals start out by the thousands, but those that can sustain themselves for as many as 50 episodes are much fewer. And a carnival which is close to turning out its 100th edition is practically unheard of!

With that, it is my great pleasure to present the 97th edition of the Blogging Boomers Carnival:

Ever walk, run or skip down the slippery slope of a mid-life love affair? If so, visit SoBabyBoomer.com and read the story of the beautiful boomer and her prince charmings.

Do we really have the right to become what we are inside ever, or is that just a selfish notion?
The Midlife Crisis Queen finds that the answer to this question has changed drastically in the past few generations!

Bike commuting is becoming the Mode of Transportation Du Jour. Learn more at The Boomer Chronicles.

Want to look sexy, but still age appropriate? The Glam Gals, Deborah and JoJami, show you the easiest way how at Fabulous after 40.

Check out Don't Gel Too Soon's thoughts about the ideals behind the Obama Inauguration and parallels to that of JFK (which the author attended!), as the kind of idealistic kid so much a part of this year's campaign.

With the rise of unemployment being matched only by the rise in stress, perhaps it's a good time to visit LifeTwo's Job & Career's section and address both issues?

Remember the wildly popular TV series "Peyton Place"? Vaboomer gives little known facts about its history. Vaboomer also has December Giveaways: music CDs and DVD "When We Left the Earth - the NASA Missions"

The holidays are a jumble of confused emotions-good and awkward- wrapped up in shiny paper, but how you handle the unexpected ones? Find out if you're the type to kiss and tell at This Marriage Thing.

And finally, Will scientists having the ability to increase the life expectancy of roundworms from 20 days to 144 days mean that we'll soon be living to a ripe old age of 560? Find out over at Contemporary Retirement.

Gen Plus reinvents a website -- and you're invited to watch it happen...a free education if you want it...and just for the Boomer crowd.

That's it! And may I once again say that I Remember JFK is honored to host this week's BBC.

Tonkas were the undisputed king of rough, tough outdoor play in the 1960's dirt. But there was another brand, nearly as popular, that Boomer kids played with by the millions: Structo.

I remember my mom making an offhand remark once about how Structo toys were of high quality. In researching this article, I learned that it may well have been that she had personal childhood recollections of Structo toys. They had been around that long.

Indeed, Tonka was the newcomer. Structo had been delighting kids with high-quality, built-to-last toys since before the US entered the Great War.

They managed to change with the times, so that by the Summer of Love, they could be found in nearly as many toyboxes as their better-selling cousins.

Continue reading "Structo Cars and Trucks" »

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As this column began to come together in my head, it was a result of the simultaneous collusion of the time of year (lots of Christmas commercials on the tube), my suspicious eying of low gas prices (I doubt that it will last), and a jingle that has been bouncing around in my cranium since 1965 or so ("You can trust your car to the man who wears the star, the big bright Texaco star!").

The end result is today's piece on the Holy Grail of childhood possessions, one that only a few of us were privileged to own (myself not among the elite): the Texaco Fire Truck.

Sadly, there is practically nothing on the web about the history of the greatest gas station promotion ever. But what I did find, I hereby share with you, along with my own personal remembrances of the amazingly wonderful Texaco fire truck.

The fire truck, to the best of my knowledge, could only be obtained at Texaco gas stations. I located an ad for the Texaco tanker, another wonderful promotional toy that I was too young to remember, which stated that you needed to buy eight gallons of gas and fork over $3.98 to get one. I assume that the fire truck, issued in 1964, had the same requirements.

Continue reading "The Texaco Fire Truck" »

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Another week, another Blogging Boomers Carnival. This edition, #96, is over at So Baby Boomer. Enjoy.

If it was a warm, sunny day, a 60's kid would be expunged from the house by a mother who was tired of her child watching television. After all, she grew up without TV, and knew the value of playing in the great outdoors. She knew, way before it became fashionable, that kids needed to get away from the one-eyed monster. Had the personal computer invaded the home space back then, she likewise would have shooed me away from the keyboard and out into the yard to plant some indelible memories of playing in the dirt.

We had a big old tree in the front yard. I believe it was an elm. It must have been of the slippery variety, since Dutch Elm Disease would have wiped it out long ago had it been of the American species. A 1995 trip to Miami revealed the warm news that the old tree was still alive, albeit MUCH bigger than it used to be.

The tree's roots were exposed on the surface. That was a critical part of the equation for perfect dirt play. That allowed the digging of tunnels under the topmost radicels. it also allowed roads and bridges to be constructed on the larger, flatter-on-top versions.

Continue reading "Digging in the Dirt" »

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One of my dad's spare time passions, and, by extension, one of mine, was golf.

His preferred course was the Miami Country Club (not a member, BTW). It was a nine hole layout that I never played. However, I did earn many a quarter (worth approximately $200 in kid bucks of the 60's) for dutifully pulling his clubs around and staying (mostly) quiet.

I was too short to effectively take a real swing. However, he did allow me to take putts when there was nobody behind us to get irritated at a kid messing around on the green ahead of them.

Dad had an Acushnet Bull's Eye putter, a classic design that is still manufactured and still popular. He also had a McGregor Tommy Armour Ironmaster, nowadays a valued collectible which I am proud to still own.

He was a bogey golfer who once shot a nine hole round at even par. What makes that feat all the more remarkable is that he did it with 60's vintage equipment.

Continue reading "How Did Our Dads Play Golf With That Equipment?" »

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Hello, Boomer nostalgia fans.

I recently lost a long-term gig at familyfirst.com. I picked a family-safe website six days a week and wrote a brief review.

That layoff put a dent in the old wallet.

However, I have spent the last five days putting together my latest venture: Zup Today?

The site will feature at least one daily article. The articles will consist of website reviews (a PG-13 or nicer one per day, personally reviewed by yours truly), cartoons (The Nature of Things, a strip I had a lot of fun drawing twelve years ago, and will likely be creating anew as soon as my archived copies run dry), and reviews of TV shows, movies, and albums. There will also be the occasional humorous foray into who knows where.

So check out the site, sign up for the daily or weekly digests, and consider signing up for a free login. There will be lots of uber-cool stuff for members only. Again, the URL is Zup Today?

Well, I Remember JFK has uncovered yet another conspiracy theory. Recall that we revealed that wing vent windows were surreptitiously phased out by auto air conditioning manufacturers. Well, faithful readers, we have blown the cover off of yet another cabal by those who sell equipment designed for artificial environmental cooling: the demise of the screen door.

The above paragraph is written tongue-in-cheekingly. Please, no nutcases need respond ;-)

When we were kids, wooden screen doors were everywhere. Moonwink Grocery in Miami, Oklahoma had one. It may have had a Rainbo Bread advertisement, advising all who would enter that it was GOOD bread. Or perhaps it was Bunny bread, a locally-baked rival.

But it was definitely there, providing a reassuring "thunk!" every time a customer walked in or out. It was a sound that I must have heard hundreds of times, and I would dearly love to return in time to hear it again.

But that's what our imaginations are for. So please, read on as I magically transport you to an era when we passed through screen doors many times a day in our travels.

Continue reading "Wooden Screen Doors" »

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The Blogging Boomers Carnival extravaganza is now up and running at Ye Olde Gen Plus Blog. Get thyself over there at once!

It all began in 1936. That year, a book was published called Birds of the West Indies. Novelist Ian Fleming, living in Jamaica, was a birder himself, and he was impressed with the volume. He was also impressed with the name of the book's author: James Bond.

Fleming wrote a novel called Casino Royale in 1953, and gave the book's hero the name of the author of the birding book. In an interview with Reader's Digest, he explained:

"I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find, and 'James Bond' was much better than something more interesting, like 'Peregrine Carruthers.' Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure — an anonymous, blunt instrument wielded by a government department."

Gotta agree with him there. Imagine hearing over and over again throughout 20+ films "Carruthers. Peregrine Carruthers."

Continue reading "James Bond" »

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I guess I'll file this one under reviews. This column is about a couple of songs that share the philosophy of I Remember JFK, which is, of course, Boomer nostalgia ROCKS!

I know of two songs that fill the bill perfectly. There are probably more, I'm depending on you, the readers, to help me out here.

One of these songs, Old Days, was released in 1975. I was sixteen. However, I was already waxing nostalgic for the 60's. The song is definitely aimed at the elder members of the Boomer generation. But it's still a fun nostalgic trip for anyone who can remember JFK.

Kids of the Baby Boom was released in 1987 by the Bellamy Brothers. Calvin Klein on the underpants was a red hot item in that particular year. Many of us were new parents. My own daughter was a year old, and my son was "under development." And nothing changes your perspective on life like the experience of being a new father or mother. I wasn't too big a country fan at the time, but I went nuts for this song anyway. It really connected with me.

What follows are the lyrics to these songs, and a link to Songza, where you can hear either one of them (and about a million more) for free. Enjoy, before the human slime that run the RIAA shut it down.

Continue reading "Nostalgic Boomer Songs, Part 1" »

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Ready for a brain cell workout? How many flipsides can YOU recall?

While driving down the road the other day and listening to The Animals' Animalisms, the song "Cheating" came on. I hadn't heard that tune since I played it on a portable record player about 1970.

What I vividly remember is that "Cheating" was the flip side of my favorite song as a child: "House of the Rising Sun."

A seven-year-old kid was likely to play both sides of a record that his older brother only heard on the hit side. Such is the nature of a seven-year-old. Curiosity is high, a sense of what song is hot has not yet developed.

Add that to a slightly-better-than-normal memory and you get factoids like the Beatles' "Thank You Girl" was backed by "Do You Want to Know a Secret."

Continue reading "Flip Sides" »

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Orson Bean was born Dallas Frederick Burrows on July 22, 1928 in Burlington, Vermont. He had a cousin you may have heard of, Calvin Coolidge. But speaking from my own perspective, he is renowned for his quick comedic style and demonstrated on various episodes of the Johnny Carson Show which I viewed as a child.

The original Mr. Bean was a huge influence on this particular class cutup who continues to practice his craft as he very rapidly nears the half-century mark. But interestingly, while I have found much in the way of biographical information on Orson Bean the stage and film actor and panelist on To Tell the Truth, information on his Tonight Show appearances was practically nonexistent.

So today's I Remember JFK memory will recall the nights when I would light up like a Christmas tree, because (a) Orson Bean was on Carson and (b) it was either a summer night or a Friday, which meant that I could actually stay up and watch the funniest man in the world, apologies to Johnny himself.

Continue reading "Orson Bean" »

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The 94th edition of the BBC is up and running over at LifeTwo. Get thyself over there anon!

The Blogging Boomers Carnival is up and running at Don't Gel too Soon. Go have a look. Oh, and look for a new I Remember JFK memory later today.

One of the most sacred rituals that I recall from my childhood was that of getting into the car and driving, sometimes over an hour, to a favorite restaurant. The delicious saturated-fat laden food was a particular delight to my parents, who could remember the very lean times of the Great Depression.

So perhaps once a month, we would pile into the Plymouth and head for locations like Chicken Annie's, or Wilder's, or the AQ Chicken House.

All three of these fine eateries are still around, I'm happy to say. Perhaps they have altered their menus to provide more health-conscious options, perhaps not. But they are still plugging away, providing unique cuisine that flies in the face of the plethora of generic chains that have become a part of our lives. And Boomers, that should make you smile. After all, if I can quickly come up with three examples of local eateries that have survived since the 60's, I'll bet you can too.

Continue reading "Our Parents' Favorite Restaurants" »

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